Another Story: Kingdom Hearts
by TheMisterE
Summary: The Key has many bearers, yet we know of few.     A young man, in a desolate world that may seem familiar, searches for answers and purpose.     This story is attempting to tie into current canon.
1. I: The World Ends

******~ Chapter I ~  
The World Ends**

It all started around... 2 weeks ago, I think. It's hard to tell now, time just blurs together. So much has happened.

It was all over the live news channels. Incidents of bodies found, with no apparent cause of death. It was like they had just died on the spot. Of course, that wasn't the case. Blurry videos of black, shadowy figures began to surface. The footage was mainly recorded on cellphones. It was hard to see what was going on, but it was something terrible. They were... reaching into people's chests, and pulled out something that glowed. Then the person just... died.

The media was rife with analysts and speculators, furiously theorising what was going on. At first the incidents were sporadic, though not isolated to any particular part of the world. Some happened in Africa, where locals thought it was demons, coming to take the souls of wrongdoers and heathens. Whatever was going on, no amount of science or reason explained what was going on. Anyone was a target; young, old, rich or poor.

Then it started happening more. Within 3 days, mass incidents occured. Great mobs of the shadows began to appear in cities, causing the death toll to spiral. Dead bodies littered the streets, governments were calling States of Emergency, citizens were in utter panic. Some churches offered salvation, and some believed; that is, until an entire Evangelist commune was wiped out, children and all. Fifty people. It was then that people really started to see that these creatures had no mercy or discrimination.

Mass evacuations began from the cities, not that they helped: the creatures simply attacked those inside the cars. It was complete chaos. News began to dissipate as the reporters, technicians and executives either died or fled for their lives. Entire cities of people were being completely wiped out, and the mobs of creatures grew into small armies. Many began to speculate it was the end of times. It certainly seemed that way.

Then it appeared. In the sky.

A giant heart-shaped moon. It would almost seem comical in other instances, but in this one, it only further sealed the belief, for some, that the end was nigh.

I don't remember much of what I was doing at this point in time; like I say, it's mostly a blur. I think that my family were trying to escape; my father was desperately trying to reassure my mother and sisters that everything would be alright, although I saw in his eyes that he knew we couldn't run far. The creatures were a worldwide incident now, and they would not stop to take what they wanted from us.

Now that I know what they wanted... well.

From there on it becomes a blur again. I think that my father sent off my mother and sisters in the family car; we would try and get supplies and catch up in "another" car. Dad had probably stolen it, not that anyone cared by this point. We were out on the streets, attempting to avoid the mobs of people in a crazed panic, whilst picking up supplies. Food and water, mainly. We couldn't afford to risk our lives for anything more.

Then they came. They were terrifying back then, great amorphous shadows with eyes that glowed bright, but still they seemed utterly dead. I remember my father, screaming at me to run, run for your fcuking life and keep yourself alive for your mother and your sisters, don't worry about me. He was standing in front of me, trying desperately to keep them away.

He didn't succeed. I don't think he survived, whatever happened to him. I only recall him being thrown aside. I want to grieve for him, but in this situation... I can't.

I must have been knocked out. I came to, and the once chaotic streets were silent. When I fully regained my senses, I wandered the streets for severl minutes, calling for someone, anyone, if they were still alive. There was no answer, and I came to realise the awful reality. The gravity of the situation, the final moments of my father defending me, the likely fate of the rest of my family... I couldn't take it. I simply fell to my knees, and I wept.

The creatures came whilst I was still on my knees, descending from rooftops, creeping from windows. Were they attracted by my sorrow? I do not know. I did not initially attempt to defend myself from them; I knew that I had no chance.

Then something happened which I simply cannot explain. My left arm began to tingle, and there was suddenly a light so blinding that it shocked me from my hopelessness. It glowed piercingly for a few seconds, and once it subsided, I saw that the creatures were acting somewhat apprehensively. They had come within a few metres of me beforehand; now, they were silently retreating back to wherever they had appeared from. At first, I did not understand, and to an extent, I still don't.

I only know it has something to do with this key.

I don't know how it got here, what it is, or where it came from, besides that it simply appeared in that shining light from nowhere. As illogical as it sounds, it's the only explanation i can derive. It is not heavy, in fact it doesn't appear to have any weight, although it looks to be made of a substantial metal. It is shaped, for lack of any better explanation, like a key, although massively oversized. It even has a keychain, which is shaped...well, like...

No. No, it can't be that. How could it possibly be...

It appears to be a weapon, of sorts. I have swung it at any of the creatures brave enough to still attack me, and they explode into black mist. A shining light leaves their body. It travels to the heart-like moon in the sky, the relevance of which I am only beginning to learn, from the key itself. It doesn't speak to me, but it holds some extraordinary knowledge and power. It is hard to describe without being able to feel it like I can. Am I the only one?

The knowledge is vast, but I can only decipher a little, for now. I can only "explain" it as the key does, because I have attempted to describe it rationally and it does not work. There is no rationality to this, even though it is happening in front of my own eyes. The creatures steal other beings' hearts, hearts being in the figurative sense. They have something to do with the new moon in the sky.

It has a name.

It's called Kingdom Hearts.

I do not know what this means, not yet. But it is enormously important. The black creatures are doing... something to Kingdom Hearts, and I must cease this. It has something to do with this key. That's all I'm able to comprehend, the rest of the information is too much for me to decipher. Figures in dark coats... an Organisation of thirteen... other worlds... sky, sea and land... I don't know what any of it means.

I am the one tasked to deal with this unimaginable problem. I need to fight these monstrous creatures, the ones with no heart, alone, in this desolate world, and I don't know why or what the ultimate goal to fighting them is. I am not sure I can bear the task, but when I think this, the key almost seems to talk to me. It seems to tell me that I cannot fail, I must not fail, or the consequences... I've been shown them. I would rather not be shown again. It is horror on a scale that I do not think is possible for the human mind to understand. Even I do not fully understand what it meant.

So I fight, to learn more, to learn what my ultimate goal is. I can only hope that fighting gives me the answers. The travelling, the fighting, the disjointed story forming in my head, the unspeakable consequences of failure... I am unsure if any normal person could ever handle it. I am not normal. Not now. I have a purpose that I must fulfill, despite not knowing the purpose or the means of achievement. I must bear these burdens, somehow. There is noone else to aid me; I have walked and walked, for what must be a hundred miles now, and I have seen no life of any kind. All I see is the lifeless; bodies strewn across streets and highways, many with the same look of utter horror as the last.

I am alone, and alone I very much figured I would stay, achieving this monumental, yet indecipherable, task. Now, though, I have the tiniest glimmer of hope.

Sometimes, as I lie, looking at the sea of stars, at Kingdom Hearts, I ask myself (or is it Kingdom Hearts?): why is it me? Why was I the one chosen for this? I look between the key, laid on the ground next to me, and Kingdom Hearts. There was no answer, at first. However, the more I ask, the more something seems to assemble itself in my mind. Am I being told something?

The last time I asked, a simple reply echoed in my head:

(_There are many worlds, but they all share the same sky. You are not alone._)****

**~ End of Chapter I ~**  



	2. II: A clear, defined Goal

**~ Chapter II ~**

**"A Clear, Defined Goal"**

I do not know what date it is today. I haven't known for quite some time, now. It must be at least a month since the incident now. A normal person would have lost hope by now, in this desolate world. However, my situation is far from what is considered normal.

I had always thought of myself as a reserved, yet resourceful, person. I did not have many true friends, and those that I had were in my younger days, and had long since gone. Sometimes I wondered what became of them. Not that it mattered anymore.

I had never minded being on my own, despite my family's worries. I never made many friends during college, merely associates. It's just the way I was, back then. I suppose I could be called anti-social, not that it ever bothered me. My resourcefulness tends to be more intense when I am on my own: I have a clear, defined goal when I am attempting to achieve something, and interference with that slows my progress. I have always been up-front with that to the many people who have interacted with me, and many have seen it as a rather selfish point of view, in which they are likely correct, now that I realise this.

Today, it is much the same, although it is a rather more unsettling loneliness. I have been travelling in a pick-up truck I have managed to hot-wire, something I learned from my father. I have passed through many cities now, and all are the same: devoid of true life. There is life, of course, but it is in the form of them. Why am I passing through the cities? They are one of the only places I can truly gather resources, which is directly related to why I chose a pickup: a sports car, for example, will get me around quicker, but will also eat gas very quickly and has little storage space. In times like these, it's critical to think resourcefully. I've even managed to wire a mini-freezer into a generator in the back of the truck, something which I'm actually quite proud of.

The pick-up's radio plays, as I expected and dreaded, static, and only static. Every city I've passed through, every station I've tuned into, it's all the same. I haven't seen a single living person since I started to travel, although I have certainly seen my fill of the dead. They all have the same expression: wide-eyed terror, as if witnessing something monumentally dreadful unfolding before their eyes. Of course, they were; to see, no, feel, your own heart being excised before you is something I cannot even begin to imagine.

The Key is still with me, and I have killed many more of them, the shining orbs of hearts floating slowly toward Kingdom Hearts itself. It seems to be getting larger, yet no less mesmerising. Its powerful glow illuminates the damaged and scarred earth at night in a soft glow, almost like a mother trying to comfort her hurt child. It is quite beautiful, something I thought I would never fully appreciate as I attempt to confront my Goal.

Ah, yes, the Goal. Neither clear, nor defined, but one I must accomplish nonetheless. Not long ago, I was in a dire situation: though the Key had made some purpose known to me, it was almost unfathomable to my mind at the time. All I could interpret from the Key, when it "talked" to me, was a stream of images in my mind's eye, an incomprehensible blur that I could not make head nor tail of.

I was at a point, around a week ago, where I was considering simply giving up. I had travelled through 4 cities, and there was no sign of earthly life anywhere. It was only them. I had lost almost all hope, and as I sat in the driver's seat of the pickup, I saw a group of them lurking towards the vehicle. They are not hard to see: their yellow, glowing eyes can be spotted from quite a distance, and they move in an odd, jerky fashion, a twisted pretense of natural movement. The group of them twitched towards me, purposefully, but almost mockingly slowly. I thought momentarily about fending them off with the Key, but a much darker, direct idea made its way to the tip of my conscience:

_let them take you and it will end_

As I have mentioned, I know that I am a selfish person. Initially, however, I thought I was simply reserved, happy to be alone. It was here I realised, however, that I was truly alone, and I could no longer stand it. Thus, in what I presumed to be my final moments, I realised my true selfish nature, and prepared to embrace it. I closed my eyes, and laid back in the driver's seat, willing to let them take my heart.

And then, suddenly, the Key made itself clear.

_(there are Others)_

Three simple words.

A stream of images, no, events, passed through my conscience in rapid succession, but this time I could finally comprehend what I was being shown: others, with their own Keys. Their world had been destroyed too, and they had been through great sorrow, but they had not stopped fighting. They had bested a great evil _(order of thirteen)_, and yet a greater one still was looming on the horizon _(no heart)_. This evil had been thwarted before _(χ)_, but it had grown more powerful, and those who had thwarted him were in dire straits. The Others needed help, from the other worlds.

The many worlds, that share the same sky.

_(sora)_

I opened my eyes.

**~ End of Chapter II ~**


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